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A 拢170m PFI hospital deal in Fife took Balfour Beatty to the top of the leader board in April, but the contractor鈥檚 total haul of 拢238.9m would only have been enough to secure third spot in the same month last year.

In further proof that the recession has sunk its teeth into the contracting sector, the overall volume of work won by the top 30 companies in April was 24% less than 2008. Compared with April 2007, when the industry was at the height of the boom, the total has dropped 36%, from 拢2.2bn to 拢1.4bn.

The year-on-year declines were marginally worse than those registered in March, which were 23% behind 2008 and 33% lower than 2007.

However, a look at the list that includes civils shows where the money can be found at the moment. April鈥檚 total of 拢2.7bn was 15% up on 2008 and 6% higher than 2007. The figures include huge wins, such as Costain鈥檚 拢397.6m waste deal in Manchester, Carillion鈥檚 拢223.5m win for the 5C satellite terminal at Heathrow and 拢250m-worth of framework deals won by Amey from Network Rail.

Howard Seymour, construction analyst at Numis Securities, said: 鈥淭he focus from the government is increasingly on the big ticket items and if you look at the order books of the big boys they are all up, with the exception of Morgan Sindall.鈥�

He said the trend for big public sector contracts would increasingly put the squeeze on small players. 鈥淭his thing has started at the bottom and will slowly work its way up the ladder,鈥� he said.

Galliford Try finished in second spot with wins that included a 拢102.6m renovation deal for Manhattan Loft Corporation鈥檚 St Pancras Chambers in London.

Carillion clinched third spot with nine wins that included a 拢31m hospital contract in Stevenage. Rok came in fourth with wins that included a 拢28m deal for Midland Heart housing association; Wates completed the top five with 21 deals worth 拢89m.